Golden Nuggets: Zach Maynard Nearly Leads the Bears to Victory over Stanford

If you have not yet already, fill out a report card for the Big Game!

After two weeks of run, run, run offense, Zach Maynard took immediate control of the offense yesterday.  To the delight of Cal fans, he turned his best performance--by far--as a Bear.  Here's what Tedford and Maynard said after the game.

California Head Coach Jeff Tedford

On the play of Zach Maynard

He stepped up big. I think he managed the game really well. He made a lot of plays, got out of trouble, threw a lot of really good balls. He grew up. As the season has gone on, he's done nothing but getter every week. We saw some great defense at play, and I'm real proud of the way he played.
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California QB Zach Maynard

On losing
It's hard for the team. We played a good game on both sides of the ball. Stanford's a great team and we couldn't afford to make the mistakes we made. Other than that, we played a good game.

On his play

We had a great week of practice and we were poised coming into the game. We knew we had to control the game and we came out guns blazing. We left it all on the field.
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On the fumble on the second play of the game

That was just a bonehead play by me, just overlooking a run play. I didn't read it as well as I should have and I pitched the ball and Isi (Sofele) wasn't even looking at me, he was looking at his read off the tackle. I pitched the ball right to him and hit him in the hands. That's all my fault.

On Stanford limiting Keenan Allen after the first quarter

Keenan's a great receiver and they double and triple teamed him to keep him from getting the ball.

After the jump we have more from the Big Game and water polo notches a big win in the Big Splash.

Football

• CalBearsBlog has video of the postgame interviews with Tedford, Zach Maynard, and Mychal Kendricks.
• CalBears.com has photos from yesterday's game.  Gotta love that lone Stanford fan cheering for Keenan Allen's TD reception in photo three.
• Wilner recaps the game and includes a photo gallery.
• Stiglich has some notes and quotes from postgame.
• Rob Calonge recaps the game.
• Despite the loss and disappointment, Mychal Kendricks and several other players are proud of the teams' performance.
• Keenan Allen quickly made his presence known in the first quarter but was only thrown to twice in the second half.
• David Shaw and some of his players were having flashbacks to 1990 and 1982 when Cal lined up for the onside kick.
• Monte Poole discusses the financial incentives for holding the Big Game at 7:15pm (the latest kickoff in the 114 meetings between the schools).